There are several reasons why the author chose to write about Ecuador. The first reason is that Ecuador is very similar to Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries, this is in terms of both socioeconomics, as well as issues. For example, the author compares Ecuador's Human Development Index (0.724); which looks at life expectancy, years of schooling, and gross national income per capita; to the average for LAC countries (0.741), which means Ecuador ranked 89th out of 186 countries. Additionally, Ecuador and LAC countries export roughly the same goods (oil, shrimp, cacao, bananas, cofefe (don't let this meme die!)). However, the difference between Ecuador and the LAC countries is the dependence on oil exports. According to the author, two-fifths of the state's revenue came from oil exports, yet four countries in LAC (Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia) produce more crude oil than Ecuador. Ecuador has its own unique environmental issues: the deforestation of mangroves for shrimp farming, human development on or near the Galapagos to fulfill tourism, and pesticide use due to cut flowers. However, Ecuador also shares environmental issues with LAC countries, as well. For example, deforestation, Ecuador has the highest rate of deforestation which is mainly to increase farming. Additionally, other shared environmental issues include: soil erosion (which is a result of deforestation) and industrial pollution (water quality, air quality, sewage management) .
Other reason why the author chose to write about Ecuador include its uniqueness and geography. In terms of uniqueness, Ecuador has four bioregions: the Galapagos (islands), the coast, the Andes (mountain range), and the Amazon (forest). "But Connery, the US also has islands, coastlines, mountain ranges, and forests, so what?" you might be wondering. This all occurs in the fourth smallest country in Latin America - Ecuador is roughly the size of Colorado!
Due to the listed bioregions above, Ecuador has high amounts of biodiversity and is even considered to be megadiverse in terms of biodiversity! In terms of plants alone, there are over 20,000 species of which a fifth are endemic - this is roughly 10% of the world's plant species! Additionally, Ecuador has 17% of the world's bird population, and all of this biodiversity is contained in just 0.2% of the world's land area. After being labeled as a "biodiversity hotspot" many organizations around the world began pouring money to protect Ecuador's biodiversity. Sadly, as the author points out, countries that tend to be biologically rich, tend to be economically poor - case in point, Ecuador, which is why the Yasuni-ITT initiative failed. This leads to Ecuador's need to extract and export oil, and to damage its environment in order to increase its production in farmed goods - sadly, nobody cares about the rare, blue bird when everybody is too hungry or lacks basic human needs.
I didn't know that Ecuador was a part of OPEC, I also didn't know that Ecuador was OPEC's smallest oil producer. What's amazing about that fact, however, is that while Ecuador produces the least amount of oil, the percentage increase in oil production over time is the highest among the OPEC countries! I thought it was really interesting to learn that Ecuador is the world's largest banana producer ($2,077,351,000), yet the amount of money from oil exports completely outshadows the exports in bananas ($12,711,229,000)!
In the chapter, the author discusses how the US is one of the largest donors to Ecuador in order to support and protect it's environment. So, my liberal brain starts churning out this crazy idea. What if the US and Ecuador got into an agreement in which US taxes would go to Ecuador solely for the purpose of environmental protection (I know that the US already does this, but I'm saying increase taxes a little bit more. Just like how our taxes are split going to different sectors, one could be Ecuador's environment). As an incentive to US citizens for going along with this crazy idea, US citizens can go to Ecuador for "free" on government sponsored trips. Just like Social Security, the longer you pay towards the environmental protection, the better the trips you get.